HoHum:
You might be a redneck if:
Your family reunion features a chewing tobacco spit-off.
The tobacco chewers in your family aren't just men.
You view the next family reunion as a chance to meet girls.
You look upon a family reunion as a chance to meet `Ms. Right'
In Ruth we probably find the custom and traditions in Israel as strange such as levirate marriage, but may we be thankful that the Son of God became flesh and is “kin” to us
WBTU:
We have gone through the first 3 chapters of Ruth. Chapter 1 we find Naomi and Ruth going to Bethlehem after many tragedies. In Chapter 2 we find Ruth and Naomi settling into life in Bethlehem. Ruth goes out to the fields to glean during harvest time. While gleaning she and Boaz, the owner of the field, grow sweet on each other. Naomi is back at home trying to come up with a plan to get these two together. Chapter 3 we find that Naomi comes up with a plan and it works. Here is chapter 4 we find that Boaz is going to plead the case of these 2 widows at the city gate. Naomi and Ruth need to be redeemed and Boaz is their redeemer.
Ruth 3:12-13 we find the problem is another man.
Commentary on Ruth 4:1-8
1. Ruth 4:1- At this time, a city of any size had a wall around it. A few gates in the wall so people could go in and out in the daytime. At night the gates were shut. Around the city gates many open areas with stone benches built against the walls where the people of the city would conduct business or just sit and chat with friends. If we sat at the gate long enough we would see lots of friends and family pass by. Since this was the case, we could conduct court there, buy, sale, or trade there, or we could just sit and watch the people pass by on their way to and or from work and business. Boaz knew the habits of this nearer of kin, and knew he would be coming into the city that day, so he sat down and waited for him. When he saw him coming, he called out to him. Not told the name of this man, Mr. So and So in the Hebrew. He is a minor part of the story but an important one.
2. Ruth 4:2- 10 men was a quorum. As Boaz and Mr. So and So chatted, an elder would come by, and Boaz would just take a moment out of this conversation to ask the elder to come sit with them. Continual chit chat, and soon 10 elders, town leaders, of the city there.
3. Ruth 4:3- Boaz brings the conversation to what he wants. Naomi and Ruth want Boaz to redeem the land and themselves. We find in this conversation that Mr. So and So seems clueless about the situation with his relative Naomi. Don’t be hard on him, harvest time was busy time.
4. Ruth 4:4- Even though Mr. So and so has little knowledge of Naomi he recognizes a good business deal. Probably even willing to let Naomi live on the land the rest of her days while he farms it. Without an heir the land would go to he and his family after her death.
5. Ruth 4:5- Mr. So and So did not understand that Ruth, a Moabitess, was attached to the land, so Boaz goes on to explain it more clearly. This was not just a matter of buying some piece of land to add to his farm. Buying the land meant redeeming Ruth and providing a child in her late husband’s name and that child would inherit the land as soon as he was an adult.
6. Ruth 4:6- Several reasons that Mr. So and So did not want to redeem the land with Ruth. She was a Moabitess, not kosher. Maybe this man already had several sons and this would further complicate matters. Best reason is that this man married to one woman for many years and to do this against her would cause problems. Whatever the reason, Boaz’s comments worked. So and so gave up his right to redeem Ruth and the land.
Ruth 4:7-8: The sandal thing was to make it legal and binding. This was a fitting way for Mr. So and so to refuse and give up his rights to Boaz. No spitting in the face as described in Deuteronomy 25, no public humiliation. This kept good relations in the extended family.
Throwing around the term redeemed. Redeemed here means to set free, to liberate. Most often translated as kinsman redeemer. Ruth and Naomi were poor and destitute. They had no one to provide for them and no heir to carry on their name. Someone needed to buy them, liberate them, out of their helpless situation. Boaz was their kinsman redeemer.
For one to be a kinsman redeemer they had to be fit, willing and able. What made Boaz a fit kinsman redeemer. Well, he was a kinsman. Only a family member could redeem.
In much the same way we need someone to come and redeem us out of our powerless situation. We are slaves to sin and we are condemned to hell, without an inheritance and without any hope. Who can redeem us out of this state? So tragic is our condition and so great is our debt through sin that nothing but the precious price of the blood of God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is able to redeem us, and at what a cost this was done!
Boaz is a type, figure of Christ. He is not the Christ because no mortal man can redeem us from sin. We find that Christ is fit, willing and able to redeem all humankind. However, to be fit the redeemer must be a member of the human family. Our redeemer is the Son of God- not the Son of man. He is the Creator- not a creature. He belongs to the divine family- not the human family. As such He could not be the Redeemer. To be a Redeemer He must be a kinsman. He must enter the family of humanity, and now we see the necessity of the incarnation. Just as Boaz stooped to be Ruth’s redeemer at Bethlehem, so Christ stooped down to be born in the city of Bethlehem. Without faith in the virgin birth and the incarnation of God in human flesh we cannot be saved. Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man.
Thesis: Let’s talk about the “kin” of kinsman redeemer through 3 passages in NT
For instances:
1. Philippians 2:6-8
M.R. DeHaan- From a beginningless eternity Jesus was the infinite Son of God, one of the three persons of the trinity, equal with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. And then when the time for the payment of redemption’s price came, Jesus left the glories of the Father’s house, laid aside the form of God, stepped down from... heaven, and went down, down, down, down, ... until He stopped at a comparatively infinitesimally small speck of matter we call this earth. He stopped at an insignificant village in Galilee, there to take up His [lodging] in the womb of an obscure Jewish [teenager], to be nourished by her blood, to grow like any other human in the dark recess of a mother’s womb, to be born like any other baby, to cry, to smile, to creep, to walk, to suffer hunger and thirst, in weariness and pain, and finally pay the price of humanity’s sin by dying like a criminal on a pagan cross. All this, to meet the... requirement of our redemption. The incarnation of the Son of God, the supernatural conception and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is the bedrock of redemption. With it all is lost... To say that faith in the virgin birth of the Son of God is not essential to salvation is to reveal total ignorance of the (biblical) plan of redemption. Only a kinsman- a near relative was fit as a Redeemer.
Galatians 4:4-5
3 perfect things here:
1. Perfect time (time had fully come)- The word “fullness” indicates that God has been working his purpose throughout history, and only when the right time came that he sent his son. At a major point in human history God took action. “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV.
2. Perfect gift- (God sent his son) “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John 1:14, NIV. John 3:16
3. Perfect purpose (to redeem)- “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:18, 19, NIV.
Hebrews 2:10- 17
Boaz in Ruth 4:3- “Our Brother Elimelech.” How many times brothers is used in this passage:
Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers (vs. 11)
I will declare your name to my brothers (Vs. 12)
He had to be made like his brothers in every way (Vs. 17)
Jesus is our elder brother, the firstborn. How can we say that? Because we “are of the same family” (vs. 11). He is fit to be our kinsman redeemer because we are “kin.” No more of this talk that God does not understand our problems, our situations, our circumstances. He does because he has lived it along with us. He is not out of touch with our reality, he is family.
At the beginning man was made in the image of God. Adam and Eve lived in harmony with God. Yet, because man sinned there began long preparations across the centuries to bring a Savior into history through a virgin named Mary. Christmas is moving day for God. In store fronts we might notice a sign that says on such and such a date the business will be found at a new location. We can say that after the first advent God in a special way now dwells among us, Immanuel. It was also some time from the stable in Bethlehem, the many years in Nazareth, 3 and a half years of ministry until he goes to the cross as God’s lamb to atone for the world’s sins.
Faith, repentance, confession and baptism are termed by many “the steps of salvation.” What little steps we are asked to take toward the outstretched arms of a gracious Savior! What giant strides the Eternal God has taken to make salvation a reality! The Creator stepped out of eternity into time. He walked the trails of Palestine all the way to the cross. Should not God’s long strides toward us help us take the short steps into his waiting arms?
